My Colour Is A Deeper Shade Of White

We have just reclaimed our house from the painters after six days of dust everywhere, paint pots left open (I mean open! why?) overnight in the dining room and chappies who consistently turned up 1 hour later than they said they would in the mornings. It's bliss to be on our own again.

Our hallway, staircase and upstairs landings have been transformed from a grubby magnolia peppered with scratches and dents to a soothing, unified deeper shade of white from the Little Green paint range. Except our painter chappies refused to paint with Little Green, claiming that it would take them twice as long as with 'normal' (read 'industrial') paint... By the time my husband found these painters (who came recommended by a friend) we had lived here just over a year and were starting to despair of all the work we still had left to do on the house. So we agreed reluctantly to forgo Little Green, which despite its lovely densely pigmented colours and smell-free characteristics even we had found a tad slow to paint with. OK. OK, we would opt for a 'faster' (ie with higher spreadability and opacity) paint for the hallway and stairs. The painters tried it on by suggesting a washable paint with a slight sheen 'very popular in school buildings'. A slight sheen? No thank you. No way. Our house is not a public institution which needs to be scrubbed down every day. I found a 'durable matt' paint by Johnstone's paints, which our local paint shop mixed up into the Little Green colour that we had always planned to have. 'Linen Wash' - the same as we painted our living room last year. A whitish, oatmealy, unbleached linen-y shade.

Somehow the painters managed to steamroll us into having gloss paint on the banisters, windowsills and other woodwork. I'm not quite sure how they did that, since we aren't very keen on shiny paints and had planned for a satin finish. Again, our desperate wish to finally get the job done went in the painters' favour, and they brought gallons of white gloss into our house. Oh yes, apparently they think it is much more durable than satin. Arghhh. They told us the glossiness will 'flatten down' ie lose a little of its shine with time, but I suspect it will not. I wonder if other people feel they have to accommodate their painters or if it was just us?

Anyhow, our hallway and stairs are now clean and light and we are very happy with the colour of the walls. Funnily enough, yesterday I took Inredningshjälpen's advice and tried a little colour quiz on Swedish wallpaper firm Rebelwalls' website. My favourite colour turned out to be...

white

so we're all right :)